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241. Archibald[10] Stark I (John, 298) (A856). Born, 1697, in Scotland. Died, 25 Jun 1766, in Manchester, NH[180]. Death(2): 1693 (?), in Scotland, probably Glasgow[180]. Immigration: 4 Aug 1719 (?), in Boston, MA, to NH. Occupation: Joiner,Farmer.

Moore, A Life of General John Stark: Archibald attended Glasgow University "...then probably more of a day school for boys." The records show "Feb. 27, 1702, 62 members of the third class...as 'entering under Master John Tran' including 'Archibaldus Stark.'" Other Londonderry, N.H. settlers attended Glasgow U.
"In Ulster, the young Scotchman, Archibald Stark learned his trade, that of a joiner, or carpenter,...in the river Kelvin neighborhood. From about 1714 to 1719 he and Elenor Nichols were having their first brood of children...in 1713 or 1714, [Elinor's sister] The Walkers were pioneers of this three family group. Jean's son Robert stayed in Ireland for some reason. In a court paper, Robert Walker was with his grandfather and had "lived with him from a child." This threw the boy and his "Uncle Stark" together...In the neighborhood of the Starks and Nichols in Londonderry, N.H., a farming area was given the local name 'Kilrea' from a hamlet near the Bann.
"Tradition in their line has it that the vessel on which they engaged passage arrived in Boston "late in the Autumn' of 1720...So much small-pox had infested the ship that the Colonial and Town authorities would allow no one to land. Again, tradition in the Stark family is brief; "all of their children died on the voyage."...At last a haven was found for the passengers at Sheepscot, a small settlement, now Wiscasset, Maine...A long winter passed before they were able, with others, to get back to Massachusetts Bay.
"...The first child, Anna...was born June 20, 1722, probably in the home of James Nichols. Not till half a year later was Archibald able to secure a suitable lot of land. For £24 he bought of Jonathan Tyler of Bradford, Mass. one half of Tyler's granted lot. It adjoined the large holdings of James McKeen, one of the colony's leaders. It also adjoined...the lots of his father-in-law, James Nichols and of his son Alexander Nichols...He and Eleanor sold off 3 of their 30 acres 'excepting Stark's homestead that he lives upon' on March 23, 1733-34. The price, to Daniel Kezar, was £28....Archibald Stark's land lay on both sides of the 'direct road to Kilrea,' some two miles south of the meeting house (now East Derry)...
Archibald Stark was a Grantee in 1726 under the charter of a new town called "Coulrain" to be located in a section 12 miles along Salmon River. The grant was by Gov. Wentworth and the Council, to several hundred men and included Hugh Adams, John Stirling, several of the name Hogg and other Londonderry men. As two years of delinquency would forfeit all rights, it was probably just another enterprise that lapsed for lack of settlers.
"Archibald Stark never sought or accepted public office...In 1728...he had his first encounter in court, for he was sued by Thomas Clanathan for five pound odd. The jury found against Stark; Michael Whidden, Foreman. In 1734-5 another case against him Thomas Steel and James Morrison, jointly caused them to be summoned for "incumbrances on the highway," an action because of a fence the three men, property owners, would not, for some reason remove. No outcome is recorded.
"Archibald Stark bought a pew in the meeting house...The location was 'on the north side of the west dore next to said dore.' The number was 57...The Starks shared the pew with another family, that of Thomas Clerk...servants of Captain Cargill.
"Archibald Stark's backing of his nephew, Robert Walker, included taking Robert into a new venture. Archibald...took to extract from the many acres of pitch-pine trees growing...on the thin sandy soil...north and west of the Scotch-Irish settlements...The location selected was halfway between Manchester and Goff's Falls. It is a tradition in the Walker family of Bedford that the Walker boys helped their Uncle Stark for three years in the making of turpentine, and that they 'crossed the river' and in the fall of the year 1737 built a log structure on lots later to be known as the town of Bedford. Following the winter of 1737-8 the boys welcomed two young men from Dunstable, Samuel and Matthew Patten...
"...in 1736 the habitation of Archibald Stark in Londonderry was destroyed by fire...it is doubtful if anything now in existence was saved except a small wooden box that is said to have come across the sea.
The first deed evidencing a change was dated on June 14th when he sold for £16 'part of Leverett's meadow laid out to Abraham Blair and Archibald Stark.'...On June 15, 1736, Archibald Stark...bought of three prominent Massachusetts men, a large vacant tract of land [600 acres] near Amoskeag Falls. He was described a "yeoman alias joiner'...It was not until September 6, 1736...that Archibald Stark was able to execute the deed of sale of his home place in Londonderry. It went to Samuel Mitchell of Marblehead. The 30 acres, including buildings, but probably only out-buildings, brought £350. An unspecified part of the consideration was for 'pew No. 57 in the meeting house.'
"...Less than four months after his purchase he was able to reduce the costs, in the sale, on December 20th, of two lots which he separated from his holdings, which had generally been referred to as 'Dudley's Farm.' For one lot of 4 acres he got £40, but for one of 20 acres he received £120...In reviewing his transactions since the fire, Stark is seen to have had net results in cash of £186 and to have retained 540 acres of his purchase.
"About this time Londonderry people became seriously concerned over the control of the fishing privileges at the mighty falls of the Merrimack, which lay...within their grant of 1719...His success and enterprise is believed to have aroused some latent feeling. The Scotch encouraged some of their number to settle near the Starks, among them John MacNeil, who 'pitched,' his location being near MacNeil Street, Manchester. Fifteen years later, when John MacNeil assaulted Archibald Stark, the act may or may not have had an origin in old stresses...though big MacNeil was of the bully type. Archibald Stark, on the other hand was not one to turn the other cheek...[MacNeil was 'six and a half in height with a corresponding frame and a stern will...his wife well mated with him.' He was said to have left Ireland because he knocked a person of distinction from his horse. It was said that his wife, Christian, once 'threw a stranger who had called to test MacNeill's ability in wrestling: 'an troth, Johnny is gone but I'm not the woman to see ye disappointed and I think if ye'll try, mon, I'll throw ye meself.']
"...Before the Londonderry house burned down Archibald Stark and two other men, John Richey of Londonderry and Samuel Graves of Kingston, on May 6, 1735, signed a note of £1, due a year later. It remained unpaid and the consequence was that Sept. 14, 1740 a court order was issued for the arrest of the men. Richard Wibird, a wealthy Portsmouth holder of the note, attempted to collect, according to law, and it involved attaching a coat belonging to Archibald Stark. The outcome is not shown in the documents.
"In 1738 Archibald ('husbandman alias joiner') and 'Hellen,' his wife, sold the last of their Londonderry land, when Samuel Torrence of the town, 'weaver,' paid £65 for it....Not until 1752 did the two sell land again, when, it being in Dunbarton, they, of Derryfield, disposed of a lot, their own children, Ann and Archibald, witnessing the signature of their father and the attempt of their mother to make a large L, as the token of 'her mark.'
"Wm. McClinto provided 6 gallons of rum at the first Litchfield meeting [for residents of Stark's locality], at which the raising of funds for a meeting house was discussed. McClinto collected 5£ and 8 shillings and Archibald Stark, who brought a salmon, collected 9 shillings for that. He, McClinto, and one Chamberlain were voted £3 'for preaching, the trouble of hiring and Billeting included.' 'Stark's Fort,' named for its location and Archibald Stark's part in its erection, was of logs and was in a stockade...with a well...Potter believed that the very existence of a fort made the Indians avoid attacking the little group of houses. Christo, also called Christian, had his wigwam on the brook bearing the latter name on the Southern border of the Starks land and as late as 1745 was friendly and well known to the Stark boys.
"[Around the falls]...men and boys from near and far came to fish [including the Starks].
"...At the tavern of Samuel Rankin, Londonderry, in 1751, Archibald Stark, John Hogg, and Hugh Rankin were authorized to call the meeting and the names of the principal landholders were disclosed (1752). The Starks included Archibald, William, John, and Archibald, Jr. 'of a place called Amoskeag.' [Financial troubles] were slowly growing and eventually overwhelmed him but did not deter him taking an interest in Dunbarton. In 1748 he gave two notes to Samuel Rankin. One for 57 £...the other being for 37 £, and for both of which, being unpaid in 1750, Rankin sued. In 1750, Archibald gave a note to James Duire, apparently a truckman or teamster and followed it with three others, all small amounts. Dwyer waited seven years, then got out a writ and Sheriff Thomas Packer attached a chair in Stark's house.
"In 1751...Stark and John MacNeil, his neighbor, became involved in a case having far reaching consequences. Archibald swore that MacNeil, assisted by Daniel MacNeil, used 'clubs and stones' in an assault and that he suffered 'great pain, incurred charges for nursing and Doctors and was hindered form any labor or business from 14th April till August 3rd, 1751.' claiming his 'life was for a long time despaired of.' Three Arbitrators awarded Stark 'for trespass and other controversies' the sum of £34 and Robert Boys, Justice of the Peace, fined John MacNeil 2 shillings...(1753)...a note given by Archibald to Richard Ayer of Haverhill, Mass., a tanner, a suit following it eventually, Hugh Stirling, Stark's future son-in-law being co-maker...On Aug. 9, 1757, a one year old black colt, with a white spot on its forehead, the property of James Wallace of Londonderry, and valued at 14 pounds, old tenor, while in the custody of Robert Anderson, in some manner got into the field of Archibald Stark. The court papers show 14 documents. John MacNeil heard Anderson tell Stark he would not pay the damages claimed at the moment he was leading the colt out of the field, namely 11 or 12 pounds, but would pay reasonable damages. Matthew Patten gave a 'warrant of apprisement to Daniel McNeil and Wm. Eliot to apprize three colts said Stark had pounded for which he gave me £4 O.T.' as to 'Rye, barley and grass,' the appraisers considered £2 O.T. proper damages to Archibald Stark. The colts were sold at auction at Stark's instance on August 20th. Two days later an action looking like reprisal was started by Wallace who had Stark arrested as he had 'converted and disposed of to his own use...knowing it to the property of James Wallace' the colt in question. The trial at Portsmouth on Sept. 6th was attended by Matthew Patten who 'sit in the sessions the afternoon' and the next day, gave his testimony. Put over till the next term (December) the jurors found for Wallace but only in the amount of seven pounds odd. On appeal Stark lost the action in June 1758, in spite of the ability of hired legal talent in Squire A. Livermore, whose bill afterward, not showing up, might indicate that he got cash...[Ann and Isabel Stark] swore to seeing the colt taken out of their father's field by him and an apprentice boy, John Johnson.
"He was taken deathly ill at Kingston, on the way home from the proceedings at Portsmouth. "It was during the heat of midsummer that Archibald Stark's body was brought home. The duty fell to Samuel, recently married, living at home...He left to his wife 'Eliner' one third of the income, everything else to the children without favoritism...When Executor John Stark (William, executor, seems not to have been active filed his accounting Oct 21, 1765, more than seven years afterward, it included '$100 to convey the body of the deceased from Kingstown (where he died) to Derryfield, and the funeral charges.' By August 11th, 1858 John Stark had arrived home for Patten wrote in his book 'I with Thomas Hall apprised Archibald Stark's estate and got 19-3/4 pounds of beef at 4s/ from John Stark and pd him." Patten and Hall eventually collected over £88 for their work. The lands were down at £8000, personal at £1618, but the estate was 'insolvent,' some 21 persons having claims among them. Matthew Thornton...and though a physician it was probably not for medical attendance. John Stark had the principal claim, "me, the subscriber, £441' and it implies he had been giving his father sums out of his pay as a Ranger captain. Patten had many more entries due to the estate settlements."

He married Elinor Nichols (242) (A857) in Londonderry, Ireland.

i. Anney[9] Stark. Born, 20 Jun 1722, in Londonderry, NH[180]. Died, 1797. Death(2): 28 Jan 1805[205]. Burial in Manchester, NH. She married William Gamble, 1744[180].

197 ii. William Stark.

iii. Isabelle Stark. Born, 1726, in Londonderry, NH[180]. Died, 1797. She married Hugh Sterling, before 1761 (?)[180].

iv. John Stark. Born, 28 Aug 1728, in Londonderry, Rockingham Co., NH[53]. Died, 8 May 1822, in Manchester, NH. Occupation: Brig.Gen. He married Elizabeth "Molly" Page, daughter of Caleb Page, 20 Aug 1758.

198 v. Archibald Stark II.

vi. Jean Stark. Born, circa 1734, in Londonderry, NH[180]. Died, 1797. She married, first, James McCully. She married, second, Samuel Stinson, circa 1751, in NH.

vii. Samuel Stark. Born, 1736, in Derryfield, NH. Died, 16 Mar 1809, in Conway, NH, @73[25]. Burial in Manchester, NH. He married Elizabeth Powers, 1758.